New US position in WTO talks raises hopes of progress

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GENEVA, Sept 20 (AFP): The United States yesterday showed a new willingness to negotiate in global trade talks, a high-ranking World Trade Organisation (WTO) official said, raising hopes of progress in the stalled Doha round of negotiations.
The WTO's chief agriculture negotiator, New Zealand ambassador Crawford Falconer, said the United States had accepted a proposal by the WTO for cutting state subsidies in the agricultural sector.
Farm support has been a key stumbling block for the 151 WTO members as they attempt to come to a deal to lower global trade barriers and increase the flow of goods and services internationally.
"They (the US) said they were prepared to negotiate within the range of numbers put forward in the agriculture paper, provided everybody else would work within the same parameters," Falconer told the news agency.
In July, Falconer published a series of proposals for WTO members that called on the US to reduce its agricultural subsidies to between 12.8-16.2 billion dollars (9.2-11.6 billion euros).
Washington had previously refused to cut its farm support to below 23 billion dollars.
"I had never heard them say that before. It's not a small thing," said Falconer, adding that US farm trade negotiator Joseph Glauber had informed the WTO of the US position during talks at the organisation's headquarters here.
"It's certainly a positive sign," he said.
The Doha round of trade talks was launched in 2001 and was meant to have been concluded by 2004 with a new global deal to increase trade to the benefit of poor countries.
The negotiations have been held back by squabbles between rich and poor countries and disagreements between the United States and the European Union.
Agriculture has been a key sticking point, with poor and emerging countries accusing rich countries of distorting the global market for farm products with their state subsidies.
Rich countries have said they are prepared to lower their subsidies providing poor and emerging countries open their domestic markets to industrial products and services from rich countries.
The US has also demanded that the European Union reduce its customs duties, which protect the EU market from imports.
WTO chief Pascal Lamy hopes to have a framework agreement before the end of the year on the Doha round of talks, with the deal finalised early next year.
Meanwhile, the European Union today welcomed as a "positive move" what it saw as a new US willingness to negotiate in world trade talks, raising hopes of progress in the Doha round of negotiations.
"It's a positive move which we welcome," said the spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who represents the 27-country bloc in the WTO talks.
The spokesman, Peter Power, said it demonstrated a "US commitment to negotiate on the basis of the Geneva text and we urge all parters to do likewise."
Poor and emerging market countries have accused rich nations of distorting the global market for farm products with their state subsidies.
Another message adds: The United States is prepared to negotiate a multilateral trade deal on the basis of a WTO proposal calling for big cuts in agriculture subsidies, a government official said yesterday.
But a spokeswoman for the office of the US Trade Representative, Sean Spicer, said other countries "must step up to ensure the strongest possible market access outcomes" in agriculture as well as manufacturing and services.
The comments in Washington came after a high-ranking WTO official said in Geneva that US officials had accepted WTO proposals as a basis for negotiations.
"They said they were prepared to negotiate within the range of numbers put forward in the agriculture paper, provided everybody else would work within the same parameters," said the WTO's chief agriculture negotiator, New Zealand ambassador Crawford Falconer.